by Andrew Walden
Two Honolulu councilmembers are demanding that radio broadcasters and advertisers enforce political correctness on the air. Introduced February 1, 2011 by Stanley Chang and Romy Cachola Honolulu Council Resolution #11-34 comes under the Stalinist-style title: “Urging … Rush Limbaugh to apologize for offensive and derogatory remarks regarding the Chinese Language and Chinese President Hu Jintao.” The proposal is now awaiting consideration by the Honolulu Council Committee on Executive Affairs and Legal Matters.
Bowing to Chinese dictatorship
The Honolulu Council has not seen fit to pass a resolution demanding that the dictator Hu release Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiao Bo. Although the former Honolulu Council, Governor Lingle and other elected officials did welcome a Falun Dafa dance performance in 2009, the Honolulu Council has not seen fit to denounce the imprisonment and torture of Falun Gong practitioners, or the continuing Communist occupation of Tibet. Passage of this resolution would be a sorry reversal for the Hawaii which helped educate Chinese Democracy leader Sun Yat Sen—founder of the Kuomintang.
An unintended consequence of Hawaii’s move to expand Chinese tourism is coming to light. Some politicians are just craven enough that—in the pursuit of imagined Chinese government favor--they would seek to silence or marginalize criticism of China’s dictatorship. Resolution #11-34 makes lots of references to alleged insults to “the Chinese language” and “racial discrimination”. In a culture where the weak have been brainwashed to shape their entire life around an eternal quest to prove they are not a bigot, these references could be effective at slipping the resolution past the full council.
Here is the text, stripped of politically correct window dressing for unvarnished clarity:
WHEREAS, on January 19, 2011, radio personality Rush Limbaugh made mocking and derogatory remarks on his program about Chinese President Hu Jintao… and
WHEREAS, these remarks were damaging to the relationship that the United States enjoys with China and offensive to the citizens of Hawaii and the United States; and…
WHEREAS, our diversity in Honolulu has been the galvanizing force behind the success of our hospitality industry, which is renowned for being among the best tourism products in the world; and
WHEREAS, Honolulu will be the host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”) forum in November 2011, which seeks to advance regional economic integration with its 21 member economies; and
WHEREAS, leaders from Asian APEC countries, including President Hu Jintao, will be present at the forum; and…therefore
BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that Rush Limbaugh is urged to apologize to … President Hu Jintao …for his offensive and derogatory remarks regarding … President Hu; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Clear Channel is urged to implement policies against racial discrimination in their radio programs; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that sponsors of radio talk shows are urged to implement policies barring sponsorship of radio broadcasts that permit racial bigotry and intolerance in their programming….
“Racial discrimination, bigotry and intolerance” is now code for “saying bad things about dictators we want to do business with.”
By demanding that Clear Channel “implement policies against racial discrimination in their radio programs” and demanding that sponsors “implement policies barring sponsorship of radio broadcasts that permit racial bigotry and intolerance in their programming” Cachola and Chang propose economic pressure be applied to silence whatever dissenting opinion they deem to be “intolerant”.
The resolution makes no bones about the fact that it is money-motivated. Given the substantial amount of business between the US and China, it would be especially anti-democratic for a governmental body to make that type of threat. Nobody told us that the Hawaii-China tourism trade includes the importation of China’s anti-democratic political system.
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